Following the installation of our new water heater, we cleared everything out of our garage to determine if any of the stuff we’ve stuffed in there over the years was wet. So at one point today, other than the appliances, our garage was empty. I should have taken a picture because it is unlikely to be in that state again, but I was hot and dirty and didn’t want to trek all that crap into the house.

Cleared of all tubs and boxes and bags and plastic pots and milk crates and chairs and tables and litter boxes and. . .the garage looked much bigger. And there was cat hair everywhere. Our outside cat, Rusty, calls the garage home, and her hair proved she spends a good bit of time shedding. With the help of our trusty neighbor Taylor, we swept and swept and swept until we had a pristine garage floor. I think we could have stuffed a mattress with the amount of cat hair we collected.

Next Mr Desert and Taylor carried in stuff while I directed them where to place it. I love organizing, so this was my favorite part of the afternoon. Home and yard stuff went on one side and X-mas and Halloween decorations, outdoor tables, ice chests, Mr. Desert’s tailgating goodies, my bike, golf clubs on the other. In the process, we consolidated some plastic tubs and so had some spare tubs to store stuff that hadn’t been in tubs before, created another comfy pile of blankets next to the new water heater for Rusty, and cleared a new space for her food dishes and litter box.

Other than home and yard stuff–boxes of extra tile, reams of extra screen, potting soil and pots, and at least a dozen can of paint–and all the stuff noted above, much of misc stuff was made up of various things we’ve been saving for a yard sale. So now all that stuff has been gathered into tubs and/or piled in one place so we’ll have a garage sale soon.

And, of course, there were plenty of things that needed to be tossed, so many in fact that it we filled ours and two neighbor’s trash bins in the process and still have to make a run to the dump. Our garage seems to be a magnet for stuff. Don’t know what to do with something? Hey, put it in the garage. Have a box of stuff you brought home from a former job? Stuff it in the garage.

Now all those misc boxes have been sorted, dried up markers and old lesson plans have been tossed, and rulers and dictionaries and thesauruses (or is that thesauri?) and coffee mugs have been stored for the garage sale, and whatever was worth keeping has been stored in a plastic tub.